Doc said Lollie isn’t putting on weight fast enough. In fact, she came to us at 53 lbs, and now weighs 51 lbs. The weird thing about that is that we’ve been feeding her A LOT of a high quality, high-protein dog food, and plenty of peanut butter throughout the day. Apparently it’s not good enough.
Lucky for her, this means she gets to start having treats and fatty snacks in a totally unprincipled manner. Not as a reward for good behavior, but at every. meal.
Vet strongly recommended that we buy Lollie some cottage cheese to mix in to her food for a few weeks. It’s super high in protein, and should help her bulk up a little. The funny thing about that is that with the exception of dog food and treats, fosterdad and I run a vegan household. Still, for the good of our fostergirl I happily trotted to the co-op and got her some fancy cottage cheese. It looks so funny in our fridge alongside our soy milk.
Lollie seems to love it, as you can see. She chomps it up as fast as she can, and just for good measure, licks the outside perimeter of the bowl, lest a nugget of cheesy yumminess escape her tongue’s reach.
Love and a Six-Foot Leash 
That’s weird because when I saw her last she really looked like she was getting less boney! Well for better of for worse at least she feels like she is getting some special cheesy goodness! You guys are the best! I am going to stop by after the Santa thing tomorrow if you guys don’t make it out to the event! It’ll only be a short visit but I really want to see my girl and Chick and you two humans can be there too if you must! The Wonderdogs have earned a special visit from Santa Dave!
I don’t think Lollie is minding thie new diet plan one bit. Those are doctors order that are easy to follow. I do hope it helps and she fills out a bit more soon. What is a normal weight for a dog of Lollie’s breed and stature?
She is pretty happy with the new diet. She weighs 51 now, but should probably weigh more like 58. I’ll be monitoring!
May I suggest that next time you get the full-fat cottage cheese instead of lowfat?
Not criticizing, just a suggestion, since she needs to gain weight…
Thank you, will do. I was thinking that she needs protein, not necessarily fat, but maybe she just needs everything she can get right now 🙂
Two thoughts:
1. That is the cleanest fridge EVAH!
2. Morgan licks his bowl SO MUCH after eating every single morsel, that by the end of the week, the bowl is coated in a thin layer of petrified dog slobber. Interestingly, it is dry but slimy. Maybe I should notify NASA?
Do you think NASA could employ Morgan to seal the cracks in spaceships? They could just pay him in cottage cheese and peanut butter… And for the sake of full disclosure: I tidied the fridege for the picture. That’s how vain I am.
We LOVE cottage cheese in our house! The bowls are extra clean when they get that with their normal food! Except, Flash tends to get it on her ears.
Hopefully this will help fatten up the little lady!
The ears!! I’d love to see that!
Can you please come and clean my fridge to look like yours? 😉
I would feed full fat personally, and an egg a day, if you can. If she’s on a high protein food it might be best to focus on fat? I’ve found with a lot of our fosters that we’ve had to drop to a slightly less quality kibble as a lot of them seem to have issues going from crap to the best. Might be something to try if she still seems slow going over the next while?
Thanks for the input Em, I will try some of your ideas. I wonder why high quality food is troublesome for some dogs at first? The real challenge there is that she seems to have a wheat allergy (manifests itself as gassiness), and only nicer foods are free of wheat…
typed telephonically. please excuse tybos.
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I have been learning about the delicious joys of cottage cheese recently as I do not operate a remotely vegan household. Every time I open the fridge and see the cottage cheese in there I think of this post. Weird huh? Why did this one stand out to me so much? Oh well, whatever it is I’m always glad to think about my baby, Lollie. I’ve been going through the blog from the beginning in honor of the 1 year mark and while it has always been well written and the pics have always been great too…..you have really progressed on both fronts.